Nudity more decent than writer’s gall

Some people never learn that you don’t mess with Mama Bear’s cub, unless you want to get hurt. Seems writer Jaci Short did just that when she fired off a letter to the St. Maries Gazette-Record, blasting the city for allowing female bicyclists to use the showers at the city pool. As a result, the writer’s stepdaughter saw nekkid female flesh, not once but twice. If Ms. Short had stopped with scolding City Hall for not using “some common sense” and “just plain decency,” she’d have been fine. But she attracted Teresa Kraack’s ire when she noted that “not everyone is as open-minded to public nudity as Ms. Kraack.” That’s Teresa’s daughter. This summer, Shenelle Kraack, an ad saleswoman and occasional columnist for the Dan Hammes’ weekly, ran in the annual Kaniksu Ranch Bare Buns Fun Run, near Loon Lake, Wash., with hundreds of others wearing nothing but the proverbial smile. And then wrote about it (Huckleberries, Aug. 13). Her mother didn’t mind Shenelle’s jog in the buff. In a letter published last week, Teresa Kraack (pronounced “Crock”) fired back at Ms. Short, saying she’d join the Bare Buns Run herself next year “except for the fact that the parts of me that were tight and perky at 21 are now loose and heading south at 50.” Added Teresa: “I am proud of Shenelle for her self confidence and fearless attitude. In the end, she will have a life well lived.” Teresa recalled that she showered nekkid with “15 other public nudists” after class in junior high, “laughing, throwing soap at each other.” Sez she: “I guess you can’t blame Shenelle. Public nudity is in her blood.”